That's Some Dream
by J.A. Aisling
Summary: Hours after Beth's birth, Rachel Berry visits Quinn Fabray in the hospital. As it turns out, these two enemies have more in common than they thought. After all, everybody has a dream! ONE-SHOT: Quinn/Rachel friendship; slight Rachel/Finn and Quinn/Puck


The scent of bleach and lavender swirled around me as I closed the door to Quinn's hospital room. Stepping further inside, I could feel Quinn's curious gaze on my forehead. The flowers I was clutching trembled in unison with my shaking hands.

"Quinn," I started nervously, finally meeting her stare. "I brought you these."

Handing her the flowers, I sunk lightly into the edge of Quinn's bed. She sniffed the tips of the bouqet and looked up at me with an eyebrow raised in suspicion.

"Rachel, these are truly beautiful, but why are you being so kind to me? I know that I don't deserve your generosity. I've made your life miserable all year." Quinn croaked hoarsely, her eyes swimming with gratitude and confusion.

I looked down at my Sperry-clad feet, clasping my hands properly on my lap. Honestly, Quinn was right. She had made a large contribution to the process of making my life a living hell. Sometimes, I had liked to think that her behavior was mainly due in part to her pregnancy hormones, but she had always treated me that way, even before the bastard child came into being. It had always seemed that, no matter how hard I tried to make peace with Quinn, she was constantly barrading me and throwing relentless glares in my direction during glee practice.

However, I could never shake the strange feeling that Quinn and I were going to be great friends one day. Underneath that threatening Cheerios body of her's stood a strong, powerful girl who often felt the weight of the world on her thin shoulders, just like I did. It was that fateful day in glee club, when I confessed to Finn the truth about Quinn's child, that I made a vow to myself to warm up to Quinn. Maybe the feat would take months. Hell, it could very easily take years, but I didn't care. I was determined to befriend the girl behind the pom-poms.

"I just see a great deal of potential in you, Quinn. Sure, you can be mean to me, but I know you don't mean any of it. You may not know this, but I have a huge amount of respect for you, especially since you braved being a pregnant teenager. In all honesty, I doubt that I could have gone through any of that without breaking down." I chuckled softly before eyeing some strange pamphlets and brochures that were stacked on Quinn's side table.

I lifted the one nearest me from the pile and examined the title. It read, "I'M IN LABOR, BUT I DON'T WANT TO PUSH".

"Those are from Miss Pillsbury. They're pretty hilarious, actually. My particular favorite is, '20 REASONS TO BLAME THE FATHER'. It's quite appropriate for this situation." Quinn said, smirking as I giggled softly at the contents of the pamphlet I was skimming over.

"Speaking of the father, where is Puck?" I inquired, scanning the room briefly for any sign that Puck had been there.

Quinn's face fell almost instantly.

"I woke up this morning to the wonderful sight of Puck making out with the night nurse. I kicked him out immediately." Quinn sighed, propping her head up on her elbow.

It was so genuinely like Puck to try and seduce another woman just hours after his girlfriend gave birth to his child. That boy could be truly thick-headed sometimes. I remembered those weeks when Puck and I were an item. To be honest, he was a great boyfriend. I often regretted breaking it off with him. Granted, he had the tendency to cheat and lie, and he had far too many tattoos. Puck was a nice person, no matter how shady he was.

"I'm guessing he isn't going to be helping you raise the baby then." I muttered, glancing at Quinn's now-deflated stomach.

"Raise the baby?" Quinn asked, tilting her head.

"I mean, unless you were planning on dumping her on your mother, you're going to have to take care of her." I explained, wondering why Quinn seemed so bewildered at the mentioning of raising her child.

"Rachel, I gave Beth up for adoption. Did nobody tell you that?"

"W-Who adopted her then? Was it Mr. Schue's ex-wife? I know you two were sort of close this year."

Quinn stared at me blankly, her mouth hanging open slightly. It was as if I had dropped a bombshell on the room. Had I said something offensive? Going back over my words, I didn't think I had. Maybe Quinn had some huge falling out with Terri Schuester, and my mentioning the woman brought back rotten memories. I knew that feeling quite well.

"Rachel, Shelby Corcoran adopted Beth." Quinn whispered, gently laying her hand on my shoulder.

Shelby Corcoran, my biological mother, had taken custody of Quinn's child. Shelby now had a little girl of her own to love and raise. She could do all of the things with little Beth that she never got the chance to do with me. By adopting Beth, Shelby was taking a leap of faith to fill the void in her heart that giving me up had caused.

I was so caught up in my thoughts, I barely noticed when tears began to flow freely down my face.

"Rachel, I am so sorry! I didn't want to be the one to tell you, and I can only imagine how this must feel! If it makes any difference, Shelby did mention you to me when she came to get Beth." Quinn cried, rubbing soothing circles into my back as I sobbed.

Shelby mentioned me? Did that mean she could care after all?  
"What did she say?" I asked curiously, finally meeting Quinn's gaze.

"She talked about how amazing your voice is. She also let it slip that losing you was her biggest regret. She didn't want to leave you."

I felt slightly guilty due to the happiness that Shelby's regret caused me. It warmed my heart to know that Shelby actually thought of me fondly, rather than as a pointless endeavor to assist some gay guys in their mission to have a family.

"You know, ever since I was old enough to really know what being adopted meant, I fantasized about meeting my mother. Most of the time, I imagined the two of us dashing into eachother's open arms and sharing a timeless embrace. When Shelby and I met, it was rather depressing, actually. I wanted nothing more than to create a wonderful bond with her, but she truly wasn't into the whole thing. I guess it's nice that she has Beth now. It's kind of like her second chance. And who knows, maybe Beth will be as talented as I am." I jokingly chuckled the last sentence and folded my arms across my chest.

"You are really talented Rachel. I know that I tease you about your ego, but I guess I'm really just kind of jealous. If I had a voice like that, I would feel invincible, like I was queen of everything. You're going to go very far in life, Rachel. That's a promise."

At that point, my eyes and mouth were opened wide with extreme shock. It was a complete miracle that Quinn wasn't tossing hurtful insults at me, let alone complimenting me. I couldn't remember ever hearing a kind word out of Quinn's mouth that was directed towards me.

"Wow, Quinn, thank you! I honestly can't believe you just said any of that!" I gasped, beaming in awe at Quinn.

"I can't believe I'm saying this stuff either. It could be all these drugs that they have me on. A word of advice, don't get knocked up before you're really ready. It's painful, and it put my whole life on hold."

Quinn certainly had a point. Before the unexpected pregnancy, she had been on top of the world. Masked behind the protection of her Cheerios uniform, Quinn practically ran the school. Once she deemed a person a loser, that person would instantly become the target of the football team's relentless bullying. After the baby bump was revealed, however, Quinn's status plummeted. Off of the cheerleading squad, all Quinn had was glee club. She became the victim of several messy slushie-facials. She also lost Finn.

"Do you wish that the father had been Finn?" I whispered softly as another tear streaked down my cheek.

"I did at first," Quinn started, absent mindedly fidgeting with her blanket. "but then I saw the way that he looks at you. It pains me to admit this, but he loves you more than life itself, Rach. I guess something about your overzealous personality turns him on."

I felt a blush creep up the back of my neck as I processed Quinn's words. Then, suddenly, a memory from the back of my mind came rushing to the surface.

"Quinn, when Bryan Ryan came and spoke to the glee club, what did you write down as your dream?"

"I wrote 'no stretch marks' at first, but then I thought harder and erased it." She confessed, pursing her lips tightly.

"What did you write after that?" I inquired curiously, folding my hands.

Quinn sighed and turned her gaze to the back corner of the room, as if that patch of the wall held great sentimental value to her.

"I wrote that my parents would take me back. When they kicked me out, it was as if somebody had taken away everything I ever had. Sure, they're not the best parents, but they're all I've got." She said, tears forming in her eyes.

"Well, you got your dream." I whispered, smiling down at the vulnerable girl before me.

She nodded and wiped a lock of golden hair out of her eyes.

"W-What did you write down?" Quinn asked me, catching me a bit off guard.

I had never planned on telling anybody the truth about my dream. I had told Jessie and Finn that I wrote something about playing some obscure part on Broadway, but that wasn't true. My dream was deeper and more far-fetched than that. In fact, there wasn't really a chance in hell of it actually happening. Hey, a girl can dream, right?

"It's really kind of silly, and it's probably not going to happen." I whispered, looking down at my toes.

"Come on, I can keep a secret." Quinn urged, placing her hand on my shoulder.

I sighed, trying unsuccessfully to think of a reason not to tell her.  
"I-I wished for Finn to be in my future. More specifically, I wrote that I want to spend the rest of my life with him; have a family. I know that it sounds silly, but I really love him, and I can see that he loves me too. I've never made a connection like Finn and mine's with somebody for as long as I can remember, and I don't want to lose it. Everytime that I try to envision my future, all that I see is Finn and me standing in front of a beautiful home, a baby in my arms. Maybe it's too soon to be thinking things like that, but you can't imagine how I feel about him. I adore him, Quinn. In all honesty, I would give up performing if it meant gaining Finn." I confessed, the last few sentences coming out in a teary blur.

Even I was shocked that I had said all of that, but every word was true, even the part about giving up performing. I had spent many sleepless nights thinking about it, and I had concluded that Finn was much more important than my talents. I would do anything for him, even if it meant never setting foot on a stage again and working at a fast food joint somewhere.

"Wow, that's some dream." Quinn whispered, her eyes swimming.

"You know, it's not as far fetched as you think. In fact, I would bet quite a bit of money that Finn feels the exact same way. I say go for it!" She continued, smiling through tears and sitting up carefully on the stack of pillows behind her head.

"Do you really think that?" I asked, shocked at Quinn's words.

"Of course I do, silly."

Before I could respond, a nurse entered the room clutching a brightly colored clipboard to her chest.

"I'm sorry ma'am, but you're going to have to go back to the waiting room with your friends. Quinn needs to rest." The nurse announced, appearing guilty for breaking up the chat.

Waving goodbye to Quinn, I started for the door.

"Rachel, he's in there. Go get him!" She shouted as I left, causing a smile to form on my face.

At that, I dashed into the waiting room, and flew into Finn's open arms.

Maybe I was going to get my dream after all.


End file.
